TPIR stands for “The Price is Right.” (In case that isn’t clear.)
I think Drew Carey is a fine host. He’s certainly better today than he was his first couple of years. I’d have chosen Marc Summers for the job-he was a great host on “Double Dare” and actually interned with Barker on “Truth Or Consequences.” But Summers, insiders say, was considered too old for the job. Which is pretty hilarious.
Anyway, I still love Price is Right but there are elements of it that have been shed in the years since ol’ Bob’s retirement. Here are some I remember fondly:
Bob’s Announcers. There is no finer announcer than the great Johnny Olson. Listen to him warm up a Price is Right studio audience:
After Johnny passed he was replaced by the colorful Rod Roddy. My pal Pat Adriance and I attended a taping of the show in 2000 or thereabouts and Rod did a wonderful warmup.
Moments With Contestants. In Bob’s later years these didn’t happen as much, because more time each hour was allotted to commercials. But Bob Barker was truly the world’s greatest emcee, for the way he interacted with people and put the focus on them. (I also love Bob’s phrase “loyal friend and true” to describe viewers who see the show each and every day.)
“Bob-isms.” Like how contestants playing the Range Game are warned not to push the stop button prematurely “because we can’t start it again for 37 hours.” Or contestants who give the wheel a particularly good yank may “spin that wheel all the way into ‘The Young and the Restless.'”
The CBS Eye Curtains.
This really has nothing to do with Barker but I miss seeing them. When Pat and I saw the show they were still hanging but by the time Dangerous Dave, the Prof and I attended a taping of Drew’s “Price” they were replaced by generic rainbow curtains. I liked the CBS eye curtains because they were a little bit of visual DNA connecting the show to Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Carol Burnett, The Smothers Brothers and so many other classic TV legends who taped their series at historic “Television City in Hollywood.”
The Samoans.
The Ticket Plug. When I sent away to get tickets for Pat and me, I didn’t need to write down the address from the show. I knew it by heart, from watching “Price” for my entire life. I am indeed a loyal friend and true.
Bob’s Crusade. It’s nice to see Drew carry on Bob’s trademark signoff, reminding folks to spay or neuter their pets. It was a cause ol’ Bob truly believed in.
The Music. In the classic era all of “The Price Is Right” music was composed specifically for the show. Those themes all had their own unique sound, from jaunty melodies for smaller prizes to big bombastic themes for cars. At some point, they just started using a production music library service–ironically, the same one we used at KCOW at the time. When I heard music I had used in a Hemingford Ledger spot being used to unveil a grandfather clock on TPIR….well, that was just disorienting as all get out.
“I Remember You From Truth Or Consequences!” Contestants brought this up frequently in the 70’s and 80’s…Barker’s first national TV exposure was on “T or C”, a weird game-stunt-shenanigans show first heard on radio. Bob hosted the show from 1956 thru 1977–five full years after he started with TPIR.
Live Is Better! Let me start with a quick story. From 1999 to earlier this year I hosted the KCOW morning show live…what happens on-air in real time is what you hear. Following my medical issues, I started voice-tracking the first hour of the program a day in advance. (Voice-tracking is a way to speed-record a disc jockey show.) But when my health improved, I started coming in and doing the whole show live again. Live, you see, is better. There’s an energy that comes from knowing you only have one shot to do a given song intro, live commercial, story or other part of the show. I enjoy live radio a thousand times more than canned radio–as a listener and a participant.
Bob Barker also knew that live is better. Even though “Price is Right” was pre-recorded, Barker insisted on shooting “live on tape”–no stops, no redos, no fixes. If props broke, if the host made a mistake, if a contestant was in the bathroom when Johnny Olson called her name, if the model drove a car into a wall, it all made it to air. Today “Price” (and lots of other contemporary game shows) suffer from terminal editing. An important benefit from the way ol’ Bob (and Goodson-Todman) did it was that you knew you were seeing exactly what happened, and in many cases if something on a pricing game went afoul, they would stop and award the prize.
Here’s some proof of the whole “live is better” theory: